Conserving Degas

imagine seeing a sculpture when you were a child and it having enough of an impact on you that you remembered it many years later, and then GETTING TO WORK ON CONSERVING IT as an adult. crazy

The skirt never made sense to me that it was so flat and unlike any of his other tutus in his paintings. So im very happy that we get to see a skirt that actually makes sense and brings the statue to it’s original beauty

Thank you for fixing her, she looks 100 times better now in her new skirt.

it's better than all the previous ones! A lot more historically accurate and pleasing to the eye

With such thought, care and sensitivity, you have brought Marie back to life. Beautiful job, you should be proud of your work.

I love the choices that were made on going more according to the time period, and also. I think the skirt helps bring out the life of sculpture.

As someone else commented, I can’t imagine how amazing it must be, as an adult, to work on a piece of art that was so impactful on you as a child. I have to say that he did an amazing job. It didn’t look right before. Proportions were off. It wasn’t historically accurate. It wasn’t representative of Degas. Now it is all of the above. Perfect color and fabric choice. Couldn’t be better.

wow the new skirt looks amazing, i think how degas would have imagined her

It now looks 'right'

My absolute favorite sculpture. I would be in tears if I got to see her in real life. You made her even prettier. Thank you.

Such a thoughtful, careful conservation. Love that Mr. Petersen places the old tutu in a preservation box for future conservators to view.

This version is just absolutely gorgeous, I adore the shape and color. Well done.

This is a gorgeous conservation! The one at the MFA (I also grew up near Boston, and coincidentally ended up working at the MFA for several years doing archival work) disturbed me as a child, too. It's wild how much of a difference that skirt makes. It looks so much more period appropriate.

I wrote a paper on la petite danseuse de quatorze ans when I was 14. We were supposed to be given an artist by our teacher and write about their work. I remembered being 5 and watching a documentary on, among others, Degas with my grandma and I requested him as my artist. I was the only one who requested someone hahaha. I poured my little heart into that paper and I was the only one who got a top grade. In my research process I fell in love with la petite danseuse de quatorze ans and I had to struggle not to make my paper into just a fangirl page. I remember reading that the owners of the sculptures were responsible for her tutu and I was really curious as to how why anyone needed to be responsible. Thank you so much for this video and for showing me why! I'm 18 now and my goal is to see any of the bronze sculptures of her before I turn 20!

I absolutely love how much you appreciate your work

this is so precious!! she really looks like a dancer now :) very cute & harmonious tutu

The best skirt so far. Fantastic job, it's so cohesive!

I love that this is a living sculpture in a way that almost no other sculpture can be.

Amazing job with the new skirt. Dega would be proud of how his sculpture looks like now.

Somewhere in storage is a box of all her old skirts, so they can look at these in the future when needed.